{"id":95948,"date":"2025-12-16T00:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/95948\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:25:11","slug":"california-hires-ex-cdc-leaders-who-left-under-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/95948\/","title":{"rendered":"California hires ex-CDC leaders who left under Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Two former senior officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including one fired by the Trump administration<\/a>, will join California as public health consultants, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.<\/p>\n

Susan Monarez<\/a> was fired as the CDC\u2019s director and Dr. Debra Houry resigned as the agency\u2019s chief medical officer and deputy director over disputes about changes at the agency<\/a>. The two will work with California\u2019s public health department to help build trust in \u201cscience-driven decision-making,\u201d Newsom\u2019s office said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just wringing our hands right now \u2014 we\u2019re fighting back,\u201d Newsom said at a news conference. \u201cThis is a substantive response to what is not happening in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

California has increasingly positioned itself as a counterweight to federal health policy, and Newsom has amped up his criticisms of President Donald Trump and challenged the Republican\u2019s policies in court. The governor\u2019s final term ends in just over a year, and he\u2019s gearing up for a possible presidential run<\/a> in 2028. <\/p>\n

California joined Washington and Oregon \u2014 two other states with Democratic governors \u2014 to launch an alliance<\/a> in September to establish their own public health guidance and vaccine recommendations, as the Trump administration makes sweeping changes to vaccine and health policy.<\/p>\n

California state Sen. Tony Strickland, a Republican, said the initiative announced Monday is an example of Newsom prioritizing his national political ambitions over the state. <\/p>\n

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\u201cCalifornia has serious problems, and we need serious solutions from a serious leader,\u201d Strickland said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to emails seeking comment on the Monarez and Houry hirings.<\/p>\n

Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeated falsehoods about vaccines, and the administration has given health recommendations this year that experts say were not backed by science. <\/p>\n

Trump in September urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol<\/a>, saying it could pose a risk of autism to their babies, remarks medical experts said were irresponsible. The CDC website was changed<\/a> last month to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism. A federal vaccine advisory panel voted earlier this month<\/a> to reverse decades-old guidance recommending that all U.S. babies get immunized against the liver infection hepatitis B on the day they\u2019re born. The vaccine is credited with preventing thousands of illnesses.<\/p>\n

Monarez<\/a>, a former director of a federal biomedical research agency, was named acting director of the CDC in January. Trump later nominated her to serve as director. She was confirmed by the Senate in July, making her the first nonphysician to serve in the role. But she was fired by the Trump administration<\/a> in August after less than a month in the post.<\/p>\n

Kennedy has said<\/a> Monarez was fired after she told him she was untrustworthy. But Monarez said that was false<\/a> in congressional testimony and that she was fired after refusing to endorse new vaccine recommendations that weren\u2019t backed by science.<\/p>\n

Monarez, in her new role, will advise California on advancing health technologies, state officials said at the news conference. <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia is leading the way to no longer sit on the sidelines and hope for a better future,\u201d Monarez said. \u201cCalifornia is investing and innovating now to build the public health systems that will protect lives, strengthen communities and create a future in which all Californians can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houry, who spent more than a decade at the CDC, was among a handful of top officials at the agency who resigned around the time Monarez was fired. Houry said in August she was concerned about the rise of vaccine misinformation during the Trump administration, as well as planned budget cuts, reorganization and firings at the CDC. <\/p>\n

Houry, who will serve as a regional and global public health adviser as part of the California initiative, said the effort will \u201cserve as a model for how states can lead together in an era of shifting federal priorities, constrained resources and evolving health threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Tr\u00e2n Nguy\u1ec5n contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Two former senior officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,52672,52638,536,52673,457,18,10979,843,1570,12035,845,33117,561,545,13,4720,37136,52636,8689,17,435,538,567,558],"class_list":["post-95948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","tag-debra-houry","tag-donald-trump","tag-ga-state-wire","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-general-news","tag-georgia","tag-government-policy","tag-health","tag-immunizations","tag-labor","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-or-state-wire","tag-oregon","tag-politics","tag-public-health","tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","tag-susan-monarez","tag-tony-strickland","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-wa-state-wire","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}